Antarctic Ice Sets New All Time Record In October

Quite astonishingly, Antarctic sea ice has set another record for maximum extent, beating the previous record of 19.513 million sq km, set on 21st September this year.

What makes the new record so astonishing is that it was set in October, on the 1st. Climatologically, the maximum extent is reached on 22nd September, so it is most unusual for the ice still to be growing 10 days later. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

Scientific Critique of IPCC’s 2013 ‘Summary for Policymakers’

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Anthony Watts

by Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, S. Fred Singer, and Willie Soon*

Introduction

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a final version of the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of its Fifth Assessment Report on September 27, 2013. It differs in important ways from a draft SPM dated June 2013 that circulated widely in the preceding months.

As discussed below, the new SPM reveals the IPCC has retreated from at least 11 alarmist claims promulgated in its previous reports or by scientists prominently associated with the IPCC. The SPM also contains at least 13 misleading or untrue statements, and 11 further statements that are phrased in such a way that they mislead readers or misrepresent important aspects of the science. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

Snow sweeps in very early this year

Posted on October 19, 2013 by The k2p blog

Snow has already come to Bavaria. Parts of Russia and the US have also seen some very early snow. Now, in just the 3rd week of October, snow has swept over northern Sweden. I have not had to clear any snow yet but I have had ice to scrape of the windshield for the last few mornings. I had only planned to change to winter tyres at the end of the month but I might have to bring this forward (to prepone it).

It is only weather of course! I wish somebody could tell me of any effects of global warming that could actually be experienced. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

No Way To Run A Country

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Dennis Avery

We can’t predict how the government shutdown will be resolved in the short term, let alone the more permanent long run effect. Things are so bad that The Economist magazine has a sketch of George Washington’s Mt. Rushmore head, scowling at the brawling political parties. The Economist claims to offer “Global intelligence for excellent thinkers.” It says the Republicans should retreat so the liberals can deal with the unfortunate “polarization” of American politics.

Has The Economist’s advice worked in the past? It ardently recommended exactly the “soft socialism” that piled up the current huge debt burdens in the EU, the national health care the EU cannot support without “death panels,” and an unsupportable population of EU non-taxpayers. Think Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

More Warmists Exploit New South Wales Bushfires

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Andrew Bolt

Background.

In recent days here in Australia, wild bushfires have broken out across the State of New South Wales (NSW). Those fires have been out of control and have destroyed many homes. The fires are still burning in some areas. See the article at this link for further information, and that article has a number of further links to other articles on the fires…..TonyfromOz.

Another warmist vulture flaps around the NSW fires:

It’s time to face up to real and growing climate change risks and impacts, such as the growing severity and frequency of our bushfires, The Climate Institute said today after yesterday’s historic fire weather danger.

“Our national, state and individual interests depend on better preparation for growing climate change risks and impacts, which threaten personal health and safety as well as economic stability and our fragile environment,” said The Climate Institute CEO John Connor. – Click here to read the full article

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Walport’s UK Energy Fantasy Does Not Add Up

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Paul Homewood

Bishop Hill had a post the other day, about a presentation on climate change given to the cabinet by Chief Scientist, Sir Mark Walport, seen at right.

One of the slides shown was this one on various scenarios for electricity generation in the UK in the brave new world. (Sorry for the quality, the original is no better!) – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

Enerconics: The Relationship between Energy and GDP

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Scottish Sceptic

This is a write up of a presentation I gave which Neil Craig has been badgering me to put on line. It was written for a Scottish audience, but the argument and conclusion are valid worldwide.

An Energy Policy to Get Out Of Recession

In this talk I will outline an argument that a good energy policy is not only critical to get us out of recession but that energy is so intrinsically linked to GDP that energy policy more or less dictates how our economy performs.

Energy

So what is energy? The idea is not difficult for as my five year old son said:

Russia 3, Greenpeace 2.

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Pointman

I like the Russians. You spend enough time studying a foreign people, you sort of fall in love with them, because that’s the beginning of understanding them and their country in any real sense. The accent is on liking the people rather than the leadership, who’re what you’re supposed to be focusing on. Despite how brutal their leadership has been at times, it mostly reflects their citizen’s take on things, especially when it comes to foreign relations.

There’s a well-founded tradition in Russia of being suspicious of any foreigners and their intentions with regard to Mother Russia. It possibly started after the Russian revolution of 1917, when the Western Powers ganged up to invade them in some sort of quixotic effort to restore the hated Romanov dynasty and get Russia back into the war. The only foreigner Stalin ever trusted was Hitler, which is why he went into catatonic shock for the three days following the German surprise invasion of 1941 when operation Barbarossa was on a roll. When you add in nearly fifty years of cold war hostility and more recently the scandalous asset stripping by foreign firms that went on in the aftermath of the USSR’s demise, it’s not difficult to have sympathy with their viewpoint. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

Tracking polar bears in the Beaufort Sea: September map

Posted on October 17, 2013 by polarbearscience

Here is the follow-up to my post on the July track map for polar bears being followed by satellite in the Beaufort Sea by the US Geological Survey (USGS) – Ten out of ten polar bears being tracked this summer in the Beaufort Sea are on the ice. See that post for methods and other background on this topic, and some track maps from 2012 (also available at the USGS website here).

The track map for September was posted on the USGS website on October 17 (delayed due to the US government shutdown) and is copied here below (Figure 1). The ice rebounded during the second half of the month (after the annual minimum was reached on September 13). The ten bears from July were down to eight – their collars might have stopped working or fallen off (most likely), they might have left the area entirely (also possible) or they might have died (the researchers don’t say which). – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________

The IPCC 95% trick: Increase the uncertainty to increase the certainty

Posted on October 17, 2013 by The k2p blog

Increasing the uncertainty in a statement to make the statement more certain to be applicable is an old trick of rhetoric. Every politician knows how to use that in a speech. It is a schoolboy’s natural defense when being hauled up for some wrongdoing. It is especially useful when caught in a lie. It is the technique beloved of defense lawyers in TV dramas. Salesmen are experts at this. It is standard practice in scientific publications when experimental data does not fit the original hypothesis.

Modify the original statement (the lie) to be less certain in the lie, so as to be more certain that the statement could be true. Widen the original hypothesis to encompass the actual data. Increase the spread of the deviating model results to be able to include the real data within the error envelope. – Click here to read the full article_____________________________________________